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PSN Store Update: Alien Isolation, Diablo 3, more
In a last-ditch effort to get in your wallet before the end of the year, the PlayStation Store has a number of good deals on games this week. Among the many deals for PS4 players at the moment, Alien: Isolation is $35.99 ($29.99 for PS Plus members), while the game's season pass is down to $14.99. Additionally, Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition is $39.59 ($35.99 on PS Plus), Escape Goat 2 is half-price ($5, $4 on PS Plus), Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes is just $6.80 and Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is $25 ($20 on PS Plus). As for Vita, players can download Danganronpa 2 for $27.99 ($23.99 on PS Plus), Nidhogg for $10.49 ($8.99 through PS Plus), Thomas Was Alone and Stealth Inc. for $3.99 each as well as Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut for $5 ($4 via PS Plus). A number of games, such as Nidhogg and Thomas Was Alone, are Cross-Buy compatible, so those with multiple systems only need to pay once to access each version. That includes Flippfly's Race the Sun, which is down to $6.99 at the moment across all three PlayStation platforms ($5.99 on PS Plus). Head over to PlayStation Blog for a full list of the current deals. [Image: Sega]
Race the Sun, Escape Goat 2 on PSN next week, says PS Blogcast [update]
The PlayStation Blogcast often quietly slips out a surprise or two in its weekly rundown of new releases, and this week is no exception. According to the podcast, Race the Sun and Escape Goat 2 hit PSN in North America next week, which would pin them for October 21 release dates. There's been no other official word on that and Blogcast details have been off the mark before, so we've reached out to devs Flippfly and MagicalTimeBean to confirm. [Update: Sony confirmed Race the Sun indeed hits PSN in North America on October 21, priced $10. Flippfly's Aaron San Filippo told Joystiq the team's working on confirming the date for Europe, and the game will be available there at a roughly equivalent price.] [Update 2: MagicalTimeBean's Ian Stocker confirmed to Joystiq that Escape Goat 2 will also reach North America on October 21, and while its European launch is yet to be set in stone, Stocker notes it "won't be far behind."] Race the Sun is already confirmed as a cross-buy game for PS4, PS3 and Vita, meaning if you buy the game on one PS platform you get it for free on the others. Cross-save is also supported to carry scores across systems.
Celebrate freedom from DRM with Humble Bundle July 4 sale
The Humble Store is currently hosting a particularly patriotic event, dubbed the DRM Freedom Sale, to celebrate the Fourth of July. The sale features games like Broforce, Surgeon Simulator 2013 and Retro City Rampage, discounted by up to 85 percent. Not only can you feel free to use the money you'll save on some sweet explosion-rockets, but you can feel good about yourself too, as 10 percent of the proceeds go to charity. You might want to hurry though; like a red, white and blue firework in the night sky - this deal will only exist for a short while. At the time of writing, there are just more than three hours left. [Image: Humble Store]
Race the Sun rockets to PlayStation 4, PS3, Vita this year
Low-altitude indie action game Race the Sun is due to hit the PlayStation console family this year, developer Flippfly announced today. Race the Sun is a high-speed racing game in which players skim a minimalist landscape in pursuit of a sinking sun, which powers their craft with its rays. The game's landscape regenerates daily, giving players new challenges and new leaderboard rankings to climb every 24 hours. The PlayStation Network version also introduces new landscape types not found in the game's original PC release. Race the Sun will be released as a Cross-Buy title for the PlayStation 4, PS3, and PS Vita this summer. [Image: Flippfly]
Race the Sun crashes Steam on December 9, finally
Race the Sun was Greenlit on October 2, and as a game whose main objective is to out-pace the sun, it's unsurprisingly on a fast-track to hit Steam: December 9 for PC, Mac and Linux. Race the Sun has had a bumpy, yet serendipitous, ride until now. ... Sorry, we just got distracted picturing a pilot getting on the intercom of a packed commercial flight to say, "Buckle up; we've got a bumpy yet serendipitous ride ahead of us." That would be ridiculous. Race the Sun launched independently through developer Flippfly in August, and in its first month, it sold just 771 copies for a total of $7,400. That rocky launch almost kicked Flippfly out of original development. "As I write this, we're running out of money, and will likely need to take on some other work to keep ourselves and our families fed for a while," Flippfly said at the time. But, that blog post put more eyeballs on Race the Sun's Steam Greenlight campaign. By the time Flippfly put together the Not on Steam Sale, Race the Sun was Greenlit. The Steam version of Race the Sun includes cloud saves, achievements, trading cards, leaderboards, Steam Workshop and supports controllers in Big Picture Mode. Anyone who's bought the game or buys it in the future from other outlets gets a complimentary Steam key. "Our launch on Steam is a testament to the power of community, and sticking with something you believe in," Flippfly says. "We wouldn't be here without our fans, the support of the indie community – and perhaps a good dose of stubbornness."
Steam Greenlights 31 games: Race the Sun, Mousecraft, Eldritch, Vox
The October 2 batch of games given the go-ahead on Steam Greenlight includes AdventurOS, Age of Wushu, Death Road to Canada, Eldritch, Hyper Light Drifter, McDROID, Mousecraft, Nihilumbra, Race the Sun, Vox and Zombies. (with the period as part of the name, of course). This Greenlight round includes 31 games and one piece of software, Mosaico: Tiling Window Manager. This batch is extra exciting because of the Not on Steam Sale, which also launched today and may now have to consider renaming itself. The Not on Steam Sale includes 35 games that are sold independently by their developers, many of which are also on Greenlight – including Race the Sun, Mousecraft and Vox. These three were all Greenlit in today's batch. Maybe they can change the name of the sale to "Not on Steam Sale, Now Featuring Games on Steam."
Not on Steam Sale: 35 indie games that aren't on Steam, are on sale
The Not on Steam Sale is both the opposite of a Steam sale and strikingly similar to one: It features more than 35 games, each up to 50 percent off for one week only, but none of these games are available on Steam – yet. Most of the games are on Greenlight, waiting for their chance to enter the Steam market, and some are simply sold independently and want a signal boost. Games on sale include Race the Sun, Blood of the Werewolf, Richard & Alice, Leviathan: The Last Day of the Decade, The Yawhg, 6180 the moon, Tower of Guns, Girls Like Robots, Full Bore, Sokobond, Cute Things Dying Violently, Rose & Time, and The Sea Will Claim Everything. The great thing is that the most expensive games are just $20 normally, with most of them priced much lower, plus they're now up to half off. To be clear: The Not on Steam Sale isn't a bundle. It's a group of indie games discounted on one convenient page, each sold separately. The sale is hosted by Aaron San Filippo, the developer of Race the Sun. Filippo recently wrote a blog post about the difficulties of selling an indie game that isn't on Steam – when he wrote it, Race the Sun was outside of the top 100 on Steam Greenlight and it had sold only 771 copies in its first month. Now, Race the Sun is No. 10 on Greenlight. "The internet is a crazy place," Filippo tells me. "When we published our sales post, we expected the usual indie developer interest, as we developers love to read about sales numbers and such. But everyone picked it up, and we ended up getting more attention than the project had ever had. Our fans became energized, and then a big YouTuber, Daniel Hardcastle, covered the game after lots of people were asking him to play the game, and he loved it."
Race the Sun earns $7,400 in first month, struggles on Greenlight
The intro to Race the Sun's one-month numbers breakdown begins on an ominous note: "Launching a PC game without a major distribution platform, such as Steam, is asking for trouble." In its launch month, developer Flippfly sold 771 copies of Race the Sun for a total of $7,400. "This may seem like a pretty big number to some – but keep in mind there are two of us, with families to support and bills to pay," Flippfly writes. "Additionally, the game's online features require a back-end server, and there are monthly costs associated with that, as well as our web hosting and other expenses." Race the Sun challenges players to outpace the setting sun by flying toward the horizon at breakneck speeds, avoiding obstacles in a procedurally generated world. In July, Flippfly described it as Temple Run meets Star Fox, and said it was already struggling on Greenlight. In 2012, Flippfly changed its focus from mobile to PC gaming, and at the time it saw Steam Greenlight as a great opportunity. On year later, Race the Sun is still on Greenlight and it's currently outside of the top 100, "seemingly a ways off." Most potential players tell Flippfly that they'll buy Race the Sun either when it's on Steam or when it's in a bundle. "I'm just not sure it's realistic to expect to be able to support yourself solely with self-distribution via your website in 2013, unless you're Minecraft," Flippfly says.
Race the Sun soars to Mac on August 19
Indie dev studio Flippfly's website boasts, "Every game we make is something we've never seen before." And by the looks of the company's upcoming racing / survival game Race the Sun, that promise is being upheld. The game was funded via a Kickstarter campaign and is scheduled to hit Steam on August 19th with full Mac compatibility. In Race the Sun, you pilot a solar-powered airplane as the sun sets in the distance. This, of course, poses a rather large problem, and it's up to you to speed towards the horizon in hopes of keeping your craft airborne. However, the path isn't without obstacles. Since the game's world is endlessly generated, it only ends when the sun finally sets, though you're not likely to make it that far. [via Joystiq]
Race the Sun brightens up PC, Mac, Linux on August 19
Most people will probably have to play Race the Sun over and over again to become proficient at it, so get as early a start as you can: It launches on August 19 for PC, Mac and Linux. In its most basic state, Race the Sun is about "racing a solar-powered craft toward the sunset at breakneck speed," developer Flippfly told us in July – it's a game where players literally try to outpace the sun. But that's not enough. A new mode, Apocalypse, is for the "devoutly masochistic" and it looks like it exists outside the bounds of mere practice. Race the Sun is up on Steam Greenlight, and pre-orders with instant access to the full game, including Apocalypse, are live now on Flippfly. Don't stare at the sun – race it.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Race The Sun
It's not that there are too many indie games; it's that there aren't enough hours in a day to play all of them. The Joystiq Indie Pitch curates the best indies to play now and watch out for in the future. What's your game called and what's it about? Race the Sun is about racing a solar-powered craft toward the sunset at breakneck speed, and trying to keep up as long as possible using various powerups and boosts to keep you on pace with the sunset. When the sun goes down, or you crash into an obstacle, it's game over. The world you race through is created with a combination of hand-designed patterns and a procedural world-creation engine. This forms a unique, endless world that's slightly different each day, and that gets more difficult with each region you pass through. Or to put it more succinctly: It's like Star Fox meets Temple Run. Why develop independently, rather than work for an established company? I worked in a game studio for over seven years, working on some of the biggest franchises out there, most recently Modern Warfare 3. The job was actually great, with good benefits and bonuses, reasonable hours, and great people. But ultimately it was driving me a bit nuts to be working on someone else's games as a cog in a giant machine, with the ultimate purpose of maximizing shareholder value. Being independent gives us creative control, and it also lets us interact directly with our fans, which has been awesome so far. When a dad sends me pictures of his kids playing something that the two of us created ourselves, and tells us how much fun they're all having, that's a really special feeling that's hard to describe.
